Mind The Gap

America’s British population has taken to the web to voice its displeasure at news that U.S. candy giant Hershey has successfully blocked our much loved U.K.-produced chocolate from being exported to the land of the free.

Dawn French: “I Refuse To Dislike My Old Body”

Dawn French’s astonishing weight-loss (100 pounds and counting) has been one of the more remarkable things to happen this decade, and it has resulted in quite a bit of newspaper moralising. Not that anyone is criticising one of Britain’s favorite comediennes for changing shape, you understand, it’s just she always maintained that she was happy the way she was – even calling her autobiography Dear Fatty to underline the point – and of course there’s nothing a newspaper columnist likes more than to point out something that looks like hypocrisy, even if it isn’t.

Thankfully, Dawn has now stepped forward to clarify the matter. It seems that her only consideration was to be able to stay alive longer, to watch her daughter Billie grow up. Had it not been for this, she’d be mainlining chocolate and carbs to this very day.

She told the Mirror: “When you’re over 50 you have to pay attention to your health a bit. I want to be there for my kid.

“I have quite a lot of exciting adventures that I want to do, and I had just ballooned a bit more than I wanted to. I’ve never disliked myself, and my weight has had nothing to do with my self-esteem. I still refuse to dislike my old body.”

And she has nothing but scorn for the way the modern media appears to persecute young women if they dare to stray from unrealistic body-shapes, pointing out that expectations are far higher now than they’ve ever been: “it’s definitely worse for girls today – because size zero has happened. I can’t begin to understand that. Why would anyone want to be called a size zero or even aspire to being a zero?

“I don’t even understand the thinking behind it, let alone the practicalities. What is all that about? But then I’ve never been in the world of ordinary dress sizes – and I’m still not. I’ve always been on the edges of that, since I was tiny. For me, whatever age or size I’ve been, I have rather liked myself. The shell is not the thing at all.”

Fraser McAlpine

Fraser has been writing and broadcasting about music and popular culture for over 15 years, first at the Top of the Pops website, and most recently for the NME, Guardian and MSN. He also wrote BBC Radio 1's Chart Blog and reviews albums for BBC Radio 2.
He is Anglophenia's current resident Brit, blogging about British slang and running around the Mall taking snaps of the crowd at the Royal Wedding, as well as reigniting a childhood passion for classic Doctor Who and cramming as much music in as he can manage.
Fraser invites you to join him on Twitter: @csi_popmusic

Latest Interviews

The Latest from Mind The Gap

America’s British population has taken to the web to voice its displeasure at news that U.S. candy giant Hershey has successfully blocked our much loved U.K.-produced chocolate from being exported to the land of the free.